ICARDA

Since its inception, ICARDA has mounted 71 collection missions in 40 countries and currently holds over 110,000 accessions of its mandate crops in its gene bank (55,000 cereals, 27,000 food legumes, 28,000 forages). These collections are held in trust in the Center's cold store under the auspices of FAO. Each year, ICARDA distributes on average, over 30,000 samples to ICARDA and other researchers worldwide.

Systematic and careful preservation of germplasm, stored as seeds, eliminates the risk of running short of seeds for rejuvenation, which is a time-consuming and expensive process. It also avoids the dangers of contamination, outcrossing, unwanted selection pressures and human error during rejuvenation, which can nullify the value of a sample. ICARDA's provides controlled environmental conditions - low temperatures and low relative humidity - for medium and long-term conservation of germplasm collections.

  After drying, the seeds are packed in plastic containers and stored in the medium-term storage, which operates at 0oC with a controlled relative humidity of 15-20%. In this way, seeds of most mandate crops can maintain their viability for 20 to 30 years. For the long-term cold store, seeds are dried to contain only 5-6% moisture and hermetically vacuum-sealed in fabricated aluminum foil packets; they can be preserved for 50-100 years at a storage temperature of -22°C.

  An important aspect of long-term preservation of germplasm is having a duplicate set of samples stored in another site with standard controlled-environment conditions. ICARDA has taken concrete steps to duplicate its long-term base collection of unique samples at other locations and institutions. For example, wheat and barley samples are preserved at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Mexico. The chickpea collection is duplicated at ICRISAT in India, the faba bean collection is duplicated at the Austrian national gene bank, and the lentil collection is duplicated at the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR), India. In addition, as national programs have assumed greater responsibilities with upgrading of facilities in recent years, ICARDA has been repatriating large collections of cereals, forages and food legumes to their countries of origin, to be conserved by national genetic resources units and to be available for utilization by national breeding programs.

For further information:
Contact Dr Ahmed Amri, Head, Genetic Resources Unit,
ICARDA, P.O. Box 5466, Aleppo, Syria.
E-Mail: A.Amri@CGIAR.ORG

© 2009 International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA).
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